On the Internet and in other networks, Quality of Service (QoS) generally relates to the concept that transmission rates, error rates, and other characteristics associated with network service can be measured and, to some extent, guaranteed in advance. Typically, maintaining QoS in a fully wired network is more or less feasible given normal day-to-day occurrences. This is because it will generally be known how many end users may request information at any one time. With that information in hand, the wired network can be configured accordingly to meet that expected demand. In fact, the wired network will probably be configured for an even greater bandwidth capability to handle future demands for service.
While maintaining QoS for a wired network can be relatively straightforward, maintaining QoS for a wireless network has proven to be challenging. This is due to an unknown number of users potentially engaging the wireless network, via access points, at any given time. For example, an access point's coverage may include a conference room. If that conference room has a large amount of meeting attendees all trying to access the network at the same time; there will most likely be a degradation of QoS provided to users. This would probably occur because the network was not expecting a surge of traffic through that access point, and resources to handle that extra traffic were not in place.
One prior art method for maintaining QoS in a wireless network environment is to simply cap throughput to prescribed levels via a centralized wireless controller. A centralized wireless controller is a device that typically manages communication traffic between a wired network and a wireless network. By capping the amount of traffic that flows to the wireless network at the wireless network's capacity, the centralized wireless controller is able to maintain QoS to a degree. However, if periods of extended congestion occur, the centralized wireless controller can easily become overwhelmed. As a result, QoS may suffer if the centralized wireless controller starts to drops packets of information due to lack of resources to handle the backed-up traffic.
Yet another prior art method for maintaining wireless network QoS is to prioritize packets at specific network nodes. For example, a high-priority packet may pass through a network node. Since the packet is high-priority, the network node could perhaps be configured to hold up other packets so that the high-priority packet will be delivered to its destination in an expedient fashion. This particular approach, however, does not take into account later network nodes along the path of that high-priority packet. If one of those later nodes is heavily congested, forwarding the packet could perhaps just add to the congestion issues and even further delay the delivery of the packet to its ultimate destination.
In view of the foregoing, it may be beneficial to provide methods and systems that would allow for management of wireless network packet traffic such that a state of a network is monitored and the information on the network is applied to ensure efficient delivery of the packet traffic.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.